Every Minute
by ForASecondThereWe'dWon
Summary: Expanding on the events of the season one finale, Veronica brings Archie back to her bedroom. I thought this scene needed a little bit of a punch to rationalize the characters' choices/to make me give a damn about them when all I really want to see is Bughead. Rated M for a night passed between Archie and Veronica that's not just hot, but intimate.
1. Für Veronica

I

 _Liar, liar, liar_ , Veronica's brain screeched as she pulled Archie further into her room, kissing him impatiently. Why was he so hung up on worrying about her mom hearing them? He'd clearly demonstrated he didn't feel the same qualms about being naively obvious in other aspects of his life. Like when he was staring at Betty and Jughead kissing, with that small town rom-com look on his face; it screamed 'There she is, the one who got away!'

Veronica was mostly annoyed because, early on, she'd done her damnedest to push those two together and now, when _she_ wanted him, he was honing in on her best friend. He'd denied it to her face. _Liar!_

She pushed away from Archie's chest, trailing her fingers down to his abdomen before yanking her arm out of his reach.

"Be right back, Archiekins." She stared into his surprised face with her flat cat eyes. Who knew he'd turn out to be the manipulator, the deceiver, the _femme fatale_ , when she was the one who looked the part? Veronica just had to make sure this night was as hollow for her as it was for him. She would act out her role perfectly on the surface, but feel nothing inside. The alternative was to allow Archie to make her a shade of Betty.

She turned on her heel and rocked her hips from side to side as she walked away from Archie. At the door of her walk-in closet, she looked back and gave him a sultry wink before disappearing inside.

In the small space, Veronica's façade cracked and she felt her face collapsing. She sunk down against her door, resting her forehead on her knees and taking deep breaths. She had brought Archie here. She was the one in control.

When it came down to the crunch, nobody ever picked her. Her father picked his stupid corporate maneuvers over their future together. Her mother picked her slippery, back alley real estate deal over Veronica's trust and respect. If Betty were available, Veronica was sure that's who Archie would be with right now. Veronica had to pick herself for once.

She stood and riffled through a drawer brimming with satin. The nightie she was after slipped between her fingers like a sharp knife through sushi. When her mother had seen it, she'd been scandalized. Veronica snorted at her mom's ability to be so morally rigid about _this_ and yet so crooked when it came to protecting her father's interests. She had told her mother she only bought it to wear over a white cotton T and jeans, capitalizing on the '90s trends that were suddenly back in fashion and unlikely to return again while Veronica was young enough to fully embrace them.

Veronica pulled off her clothes and slipped the negligee over her head. Normally she wouldn't leave her things lying on the floor of her closet―if her mother had coached her in the joys of spending, she'd also impressed upon her the responsibility of wardrobe stewardship―but she reminded herself that she _wasn't_ herself tonight.

She stepped out of the closet to see Archie looking at a photograph on her dresser. He had taken his jacket off. Veronica clicked the door shut behind her, making him turn. She was angry that his brown eyes looked so honest now.

"I―Ronnie―I―oh man…"

Archie's eyes stroked her from head to toe and back up. Veronica's heartrate picked up and her stiffened nipples felt sensitive as the material brushed over them. It was her signature royal blue with a neckline low enough to put the 'V' in 'Veronica' and a severely straight hem that made the distance between it and her mid-thigh look like a mile.

She raised one of the eyebrows that had been crafted with more intention and artistry than the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

"Haven't you ever seen a girl in her pajamas before, Archie?"

Archie tucked his chin and lifted both eyebrows.

"You and I both know that isn't pajamas."

Veronica shrugged and sat on the edge of her bed, crossing her legs carefully so they would look as long as possible. Internally, she was already exhausted. In the safe, quiet moments when she daydreamed, she'd thought about her first time with Archie happening spontaneously, with excitement, and nerves, and none of the orchestration Veronica was trying to pull off tonight.

Seeing Veronica seated seemed to hand back some of Archie's ego and she watched his posture relax. Apparently a girl who didn't look like she was about to stalk towards him and pounce like a wild cat wasn't a sexual priority, because Archie actually looked kind of distracted.

He looked back over his shoulder at the collection of frames she had on her dresser.

"I didn't know you could play the piano. All you ever do with the Pussycats is sing."

"What's the matter? Worried that dating two Pussycat pianists will start to look like a fetish?"

Archie rolled his eyes and crossed the room to sit next to her.

"No, you pervert."

Veronica smirked but Archie was still looking at her so she nodded her head slowly and explained.

"I can't play the piano, but I can play the part of someone who can."

Archie looked confused in his adorable way. Watching his face made Veronica feel sick. _His honesty is an act!_

"You'd make a great spy, Ronnie. If you were ever interrogated, it would take so long to get the truth out of you that they'd probably just give up."

Veronica laughed, surprised.

"I know certain pieces. _Für Elise_ , Bach's _Major_ this and _Minor_ that, some slower works of Gershwin's. Basically anything straightforward enough to be memorized but never read off the page."

Archie shook his head.

"Veronica, that's incredible. But why?"

She leaned back on her hands, unconsciously opening up her body language.

"Because a daughter with a pretty face and a classical repertoire is a great prop at dinners that are really meetings," Veronica rocked her head to one side like an old fashioned metronome, "that are really deals," she rocked it back the other way, "that are really fraud." She looked sideways at Archie.

"That's messed up." Archie looked genuinely pained. Veronica bit the inside of her lip. She shrugged.

"But I bet you could play the fuck out of _Für Elise_."

Veronica's jaw dropped.

"Go wash your mouth out with apple pie, you despoiled all-American! I didn't even know you _could_ swear." She leaned her shoulder into Archie's. "But you're right. I could."


	2. Muse to My Ears

II

Archie laughed and cautiously twined his fingers into Veronica's, looking nervously into her eyes. There was a struggle in her face that had no reason to be there, as far as he could tell. Something wasn't right. Something about this whole evening wasn't right. There was an uncomfortable edge to Veronica's sexiness that made Archie feel like he was sitting there with a prostitute on her first night doing it for money. (He'd watched the scene in _Pretty Woman_ where Julia Roberts tells Richard Gere her tragic backstory… before his mom had noticed his seven-year-old self lurking in the doorway of the TV room.)

It was hard to say what was weirder though: Veronica laying on the sex appeal even thicker than usual, or seeing the persona he'd come to know as Veronica Lodge slowly peel back in ways he wasn't expecting. Archie wasn't sure when he'd become the guy who was more interested in the first, but it'd been that way for him since the previous summer. Miss Grundy had _wanted_ him and Archie's head had been turned so fast, he'd never had a chance to figure out more about her until it got to the point that his friends had to do it for him because they thought he was in danger. It was a little different with Val―she was so awesome and they were both into music―but it took them breaking up (followed by the brutal rejection on Jughead's birthday) for Archie to see that he hadn't really known her at all. Cheryl was a mistake he easily could have made―that body, that confidence, that red, red mouth―if the fact that the girl was so obviously pure evil hadn't deterred him.

Veronica too had pulled him in dick first, but when Archie considered it, he felt they'd actually gotten a lot of the sexual tension out of the way with that first kiss in one of Thornhill's closets on the night of the dance. They'd established a friendship since then, but whenever Archie watched her, in person or in his mind's eye, she was never the same self he'd seen last. When it came down to it, he was certain he'd never know anyone as well as he knew Betty.

After the others he'd been with this year, Betty would be an emotional palate cleanser. It would be her because it was _supposed_ to be her. Seeing her with Jughead was wrong. It was so clear to Archie. Why wasn't it clear to everyone? Oldest of friends! Girl next door!

But Betty wasn't waiting for him like she'd waited before, which had been enough to snap Archie out of it. He'd thought moving forward with Veronica would cement the idea that the image of him and Betty was only a fantasy. If he and Veronica broke up after this, she would be as ok with it as he would. She wasn't fragile and emotional like Betty.

 _Liar, liar, liar_ , he thought, watching her resistant brown eyes. He had to stop giving himself permission not to care by treating her like a cardboard cut-out instead of a person. Because really he did care. Veronica was there for him when Betty stopped texting, drifting down the Blossom case rabbit hole. When he needed Jughead to have his back, but he was off with Betty instead. When others didn't take his passion for music seriously and he had to face his own personal horror, stage fright, sitting behind that mic alone.

His hand tightened around hers and Veronica looked down at it.

She was like that Billy Joel song: frequently kind and suddenly cruel. She wasn't the fake Betty Archie had held in his mind for so long. She wasn't like the actual Betty Archie had to let go her own way. Veronica was real. She was real and she was here.

"I'd love to hear you play sometime."

Veronica tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Sure, when our crime fighting careers are over." She tilted her head. "I wonder what Bruce Wayne did for a hobby."

Archie felt like a weight had been lifted and was enjoying just being near her exponentially more with every moment that passed. He laughed, his chest vibrating with the sound and the speed of his racing heart.

"You remind me of Bruce Wayne."

Veronica stared at him.

"Because I'm rich?"

Archie shook his head vehemently.

"No, because you help people when you don't have to. You show up for people. Betty, Cheryl, Ethel, Jughead…"

"Yeah, I know what a kindness he considers it that I broke and entered his dad's trailer."

"First of all, that was both of us. And second, he'll get over it. Jughead needs something to be pissed off about so he doesn't have to start buying his clothes in a colour other than black."

Veronica smiled but looked down. Archie felt his own smile slipping.

"What is it?"

"What about you, Archiekins? Have I ever shown up for you?"

Something in her tone was self-demeaning and Archie frowned.

"Of course you have. I look for your face every morning at school. I count on you without even realizing it." Archie's eyes scanned the room as he struggled to show her, to tell her. "You made my music a duet when it would have failed as a solo act. You've been my… my…"

"Groupie?"

"Muse. Definitely muse."

She smiled, replying in a teasing voice. "I know you mean it as a compliment, but I think being a muse is kind of a passive role for women since the muse generates the idea, then the creator, typically a man, gets all the―"

Archie leaned forward quickly and pressed his lips to Veronica's. Her mouth was warm and his felt comfortable against it, resting on her fuller bottom lip like a meandering Sunday walker on a park bench. He had kissed her so firmly, he couldn't tell if she was responding, so he pulled back.

"―credit," she finished.

Her eyelids flickered up and down and Archie looked down and grinned, mostly to himself, at the thought that Veronica was surprised by a kiss after they both knew she'd brought him to her bedroom for a lot more than that.

"You're wrong if you think you don't get any credit. You should try looking at the faces in the audience instead of through them the next time we perform together." Archie smiled at her. "They're always looking at you."

Veronica rolled her eyes and flopped straight back onto the bed.

"I hate to break it to you, Archiekins, but that's the influence of the Pussycat uniform, not my supressed musical talent."

Archie laughed and glanced down at her, trying to keep his gaze far from the hem of her nightgown, which had seemed slippery enough to expose her completely if she started shifting around.

"I can't deny that's probably part of it, but you're magnetic, Ronnie. Really."

"Yeah, the pole of the magnet that's the same as whatever everyone else's is around here. My mere presence is enough to force them away." She made a shooing gesture with her hand.

Archie laid back next to her, not quite letting their arms touch, though their hands were still tangled together. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye; she was staring at the ceiling, so he kept his head turned that way too.

"Not when you're singing."

The duvet rustled and Archie looked eagerly towards Veronica. Her back remained flat to the bed, but her legs were now curled up towards him and her face was turned to his. Her steady brown eyes were waiting. With the vibrant blue satin below her and her black hair spread out, Veronica looked weightless―as though she were suspended in water. And Archie was breathing, breathing shallowly, although he was drifting at the bottom of the ocean.


	3. Hot Surfaces

III

Veronica's bed was a lot smaller with Archie on it. Or maybe it was bigger now that he was there. Looking at him with her head horizontal definitely made him _seem_ bigger. Although, he was also horizontal, so he should look pretty much the same as when they were both standing up. But he didn't. He looked big… and close. And his hair looked like the last stretch of the sun passing over her bedspread on its fall off the edge of the Earth. If she kept looking at him, Veronica worried that she'd fall off the edge of the Earth herself.

Her room was like a panic room. A best-case-scenario panic room. A vacuum, clear of all other things, allowing Archie to really think about her, look at her, and talk to her. It was almost unnerving to have his undivided attention. Of course, she always felt like he listened when she spoke to him, but this wasn't the same because right now she knew for a fact that he had nowhere else to be, and that there was nothing to interrupt them. He also wasn't wearing his mask of concerned empathy that occasionally made Veronica want to throw up; it seemed so unlikely that anyone could be that compassionate _all_ the time.

Archie was looking at her kind of intensely and Veronica had the kneejerk reaction that maybe she should mention Betty. For some reason, the earnest way he was staring made Veronica feel guilty, like she wasn't supposed to be there, she wasn't supposed to get the guy. At least, not this guy. This good, wholesome Andrews boy who was pride of the town―the state, if he pursued a college football scholarship. This guy who might always belong, just a little bit, to Betty Cooper.

Veronica didn't know if holding Archie virtually in isolation was what it took for him to see her without the shadow of Betty smudged in the corner of his eye, but she was definitely feeling an intimacy with him now that a hundred rounds of seven minutes in heaven couldn't hope to generate. That first kiss had been hot and exciting, but it was a flame that burned like a short match―so quick it didn't even leave a glow when you closed your eyes. The kiss Archie had just given her was like lying on your back on the hot surface of your driveway (or the roof of your luxury Upper East Side apartment complex, whatever the case may be) on an infinite summer evening. It warmed Veronica unexpectedly, seeped right into her bones, and it lingered.

She didn't have such a high regard for Archie's prior romantic experiences that she thought he could manifest a kiss like that out of thin air unless he actually meant it. Which meant… which meant…

Veronica pried her shoulder up from the bed and rolled to face Archie completely. His eyes were on her immediately and she was flattered that he'd only been looking at the ceiling as a pretense; she could tell he really wanted to be looking at her. She leaned into him, watching Archie's gaze dart between her eyes and her mouth, like a tennis spectator. His nose brushed her cheek. She could just see, as an experiment, if the next kiss was the same as the last one. Then she'd know if it was a fluke…

They connected. Like tug-of-war, Archie and Veronica pulled back and forth, each one pressing their mouth more firmly whenever the other started to pull away. Veronica found she was inhaling whenever she could, and not normally, but like she was preparing to be timed in a breath-holding contest―an underwater one, judging by the way her legs were suddenly straightening and fluttering towards Archie's.

She thought he was playing it very safe. Drawn into the kiss, Archie had shifted onto his side as well, but after his hand found her waist, it didn't stray either above or below. Contrary to putting her off, Veronica found she was more excited, more eager to continue. Archie was obviously playing it safe, but he was not playing it cool; the natural heat of his hand combined with the friction his palm created, rubbing around almost to her back, and then almost to her stomach. His actions were tight and controlled, but Veronica could sense the moment of snapping approaching.

Gently, she pressed her knee into the thigh of his upper leg, forcing it away from her, then laid her own thigh down in its place, stroking forward. The denim of his jeans was soft but stiff against her bare skin. She wondered if anything else would feel like that.

Veronica wrapped her arm around Archie's neck and felt him draw her in, his hand holding firmly against the middle of her back. She shifted to deepen the kiss, letting her leg drag up against Archie's at the same time, until the hardened ridge of his erection kneaded her thigh.

Archie groaned and pulled back, panting. Veronica frowned and slipped her leg off of his.

"What's wrong? Am I going too fast, or…?" She tried to hold his gaze as she waited for an answer, but Archie was busy looking all over the place.

"Nothing's wrong. It's just… wow," his eyes scanned down over her chest to the warm skin of her almost-totally-exposed thigh, "this is way too tempting."

He looked up and Veronica was hit by how much friendlier a shade of brown Archie's eyes seemed to be than her own. She raised an eyebrow.

"It's supposed to be _tempting_." she ran a hand down his chest and felt Archie's heart slamming back against it. "That's why they call it seduction."

Archie laughed softly.

"You're very convincing. I almost feel like I shouldn't let you speak because you might tell me all kinds of things."

"Suddenly I feel like the bad guy. Am I Catwoman to you?"

"I wasn't thinking it, but if you went into that closet again and came back out in a shiny black bodysuit, I wouldn't be surprised. Or complaining."

Veronica rolled her eyes.

"Is that all guys get out of her character? The cat suit?" Archie opened his mouth, but Veronica pressed her fingers to his lips. "Rhetorical. I was talking about how persuasive Catwoman is. Manipulative. Like, leading the hero off the path of innocence and integrity."

Archie's mouth spread into a smile Veronica found very unsettling as it seemed to say he knew something she didn't―a position she never liked finding herself in and generally avoided at all costs.

"You think I'm a virgin. _That's_ what this is about. You're just using Catwoman to distract me."

Veronica blushed deeply. Archie propped himself up on an elbow, looking cocky. She was losing her edge, and couldn't believe it was resulting in her struggling not to smile.

"No, I know that you aren't. Besides the fact that I was informed of all the Grundy-gate details, you just… you just don't…"

"I don't… what?"

"You know you don't look like you'd be a virgin."

Archie grinned.

"Are you saying you think I'm hot?"

Veronica rolled her eyes again, exaggeratedly. Archie's smile looked like it was going to stick that way if he held it any longer.

"Well then you don't look like you'd be a virgin either."

"Well maybe I'm not."

Archie's face turned serious.

"Wait, are you?"

"Huh. Look who once again has the upper hand." She smiled sweetly at him and Archie groaned, pressing his face into the duvet.


	4. Play it Again

IV

Archie really didn't have a preference either way. He could never make the mistake of assuming Veronica's body and the choices she made with and about it were anyone's other than her own. He teased her because, beyond knowing she could take it, he had a hunch that she would like it.

Veronica was like a queen; she liked witnessing happiness, peace, and prosperity in all she oversaw, but she had an inflexible confrontational streak that she kept as razor sharp as a sword.

She covered her face with one hand, then pulled it away, swiping back a lock of her hair.

"I really didn't mean to get into a discussion about your virginity." She laughed anxiously. "I'm just starting to realize that I've played this evening all wrong."

Archie's eyebrows pulled together.

"Played it wrong? So rewind it. Go back and play it again." He smiled at her seriously though he was being playful.

"I thought you were more of a live performer." She raised an eyebrow. "Once the song's started, you can't just stop and try it a different way."

"You know, Ronnie," he looked down, then back up at her, "you really have a way with words… but if you're planning to continue with the music metaphor, I'd think again, because this is one area where I can keep up with you."

Veronica turned her head to stare up at the smooth white ceiling.

"This is wrong. You aren't what I thought," she mumbled.

Archie was disturbed to see a shining track down her cheek.

"What? What do you mean? Did I do something wrong? Do you want me to go?" He reached for her hand and held it tightly.

She shook her head steadily back and forth, but wouldn't meet his eye.

"You don't have to try so hard, Ronnie. I hope I didn't make you feel like you had to do that."

Veronica wiped carefully below each eye before turning to him.

"No, it was never you. It was… oh god, this is going to sound so petty…"

She seemed to lose her nerve, so Archie jumped in.

"Please, just tell me, Ronnie. I thought we were really getting somewhere tonight. I feel like I'm finally seeing behind the curtain of Veronica Lodge: The Great and Powerful." He smiled at her.

"It's Betty."

"Betty?" Archie tried to put together how Betty could have influenced Veronica's decision to seduce him. "Don't tell me this is another of your kidnap and confession schemes, because I'm _pretty_ sure I have nothing to confess."

Veronica sighed and tilted her head towards Archie until he could feel a light pressure against his chest. Her expression was thoughtful.

"It might be, if you think a scheme stands any chance against true love."

Archie was speechless for a minute. How to even begin denying Veronica's assumptions about what was between him and Betty when Archie hadn't even been sure himself?

"I thought that…" Archie ran a hand through his hair, uncomfortable. "… there might be something there. But I was wrong, ok, Ronnie? I was wrong."

He looked down into her eyes, but was met with a poker face. She started to pull her hand out of his, then paused before squeezing tighter. He thought it meant she was giving him a chance.

"You know that I've known Betty forever, but what you probably don't realize―since I know you've spent a lot of time in your own head this evening―is that I don't have anything like this with her." Archie gestured between them, knowing he was missing some word that would make his point clearer.

Veronica's lips parted, closed, and parted again.

"Intimacy."

"Intimacy." Archie nodded.

Veronica groaned, but she was smiling slightly now.

"Intimacy is the void I've been trying to fill with blatant seduction since I got you through the door." She laughed and Archie's heart jumped.

"I mean," Archie grinned as he felt his body heat up, "I like it, but I feel like it's not really _us_."

"Us?" Veronica's smile grew.

"Yeah," Archie replied, as if it was obvious. He traced his fingers over her shoulder and felt her quiver. "There's more to the Veronica Lodge _I_ know than this. She's way too comfortable around me to need to put on a character, especially when we're alone together."

Veronica nodded.

"Very alone."

"And very together." He wiggled his fingers through hers and she shook her head, smiling. "You can practically smell the intimacy."

"And it smells like Chanel number five."

Archie snorted.

"Alright, Uptown Girl." He took his hands from her and pulled himself up with his abdominals so that he was back to sitting near the edge of her bed. Archie peeled his t-shirt off and held it out to Veronica. She reached for his hand and he helped her up beside him. She took the t-shirt.

"What's this? You want to see my Archie Andrews impression? I'm also going to need a guitar and a football helmet."

"Man, a pianist _and_ a comedian."

She looked at him flatly and raised an eyebrow.

Archie rolled his eyes.

"I want you to be comfortable. If you feel more yourself in―" he couldn't keep his eyes from roaming over her 'pajamas' "―what you have on, then that's fine too."

Veronica's mouth dropped open. She snatched the t-shirt from his hand.

"And give you this shirt back, cutting short the experience of having a half-naked Archie Andrews in my bedroom?"

Archie blushed as Veronica's gaze crept over his torso.

"Besides, I'd like the chance to 'feel more myself' as your girlfriend."

She slipped gracefully off the edge of the bed.

"Ok, don't look." She reached for the hem of her nightgown.

"Oh, I'm definitely going to look." Archie grinned at her.

Veronica strode away from him and flipped the lights off. It was dim, but he could still see her by the light coming through her translucent curtains. He was immediately at war with himself over whether or not he should point this out to her.

Unfortunately, Veronica seemed aware of the fact that she was still pretty visible.

"I'll try not to look, just stay out here. Don't change in the closet."

"I wasn't even considering it. You'd probably find a picture of me posing at a fashion show with Jay-Z and figure out I was exactly the girl you thought I was up until about an hour ago."

Archie smiled. Veronica's face looked happily undistracted.

"Not possible, but if you know Jay-Z, I'm absolutely not above exploiting that connection to further my music career."

Veronica laughed.

"Just a fictional example, but I'll bring you as my plus one if an invite to one of his parties ever arrives in the mail."

"That sounds very fair." Archie relaxed, leaning back on his hands. Veronica's expression turned devious.

"Then, in the interest of fairness…"

She walked past him, right up in front of the drapes so that Archie could see the swing of her straight hair (its shadow as black as reality), but not her face. The flow of material along her body, but not the colour of the satin. She dropped his t-shirt to the ground (he knew because she hadn't been holding anything else) then drew her nightgown up over her head.

Archie clenched the duvet with both hands. The light through the drapes showed Veronica's body in perfect silhouette.


	5. First Day, First Night

V

Veronica took a second to hold the neck of Archie's t-shirt up over her nose and inhale the smell of him. The scent reminded her of the first day of school, but not because she was picking up notes of shiny new metal locks or unusually delicious sandwiches made by moms and dads who weren't yet creatively exhausted from packing daily lunches for lazy teenagers. It just smelt like something fresh and hopeful.

Veronica started feeling nostalgic for her first day at Riverdale High and every pleasant thing the scent of Archie called to mind. She knew it was selfish to wish herself back there, since the rest of the student population had been feeling the still-fresh loss of Jason Blossom on that day―she just hadn't known it yet. Considering that, Veronica couldn't quite imagine herself back to a time before she was as neck-deep in this town's problems as everyone else she knew. She really had become one of them, and it hadn't been nearly as painful as she'd thought.

Archie's bare skin glowed dimly in front of her, like a nightlight. Now that she knew his heart and mind were Betty-free, Archie struck her as a man reborn. And she was the girl in his t-shirt.

She crossed to her bed, trying not to walk awkwardly as she felt the fabric skim her bum; there was definitely even less room for error in movement than with her negligee. Archie straightened up on the bed and she moved close to him until his knees pressed into the front of her thighs. Veronica brushed her hair behind her ear and felt the hem of Archie's shirt slide up her hip. She dropped her arm.

"So do we still have it?" His voice was warm and full, wrapping around her and sending goosebumps up the backs of her legs.

"Our intimacy?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know. Whisper something to me." Veronica smiled at him, trying not to make the request sound too sensual.

Archie shifted to the edge and curled his fingers to her, calling her in. Veronica leaned forward and felt his fingers press into the bottom seam of his t-shirt where it hovered over her upper _upper_ thigh. He turned his head quickly and Veronica almost jumped, feeling his lips bump against her ear.

"I missed you," he whispered.

Veronica laughed softly.

"When?"

"On the morning after Jughead's party. I woke up and you weren't there."

Veronica drew back so she could look him in the eye.

"Well, if you were thinking we were going to make out again, don't worry, you didn't miss anything. I would have felt weird about doing that with Jughead just downstairs." She paused. "I mean, now that I know he _was_ sitting just downstairs. Knowing he could have heard us in your room would have made that extremely awkward walk of shame even worse."

Archie laughed.

"He does have kind of a Cheshire Cat vibe. You can't tell when he's going to show up and you never exactly know whether he's on your side or dicking you around."

"God, that is so true."

Archie took his hand away from her and rubbed it up and down his leg, anxiously.

"I just would have liked to see you. I liked knowing you were there. I think I actually slept better." He gave a short, embarrassed laugh.

Veronica wondered what could have been troubling Archie's dreams that he slept poorly otherwise. Obviously, the murder of a teenage boy was still hanging like a black cloud over the town, but day to day, they'd all become partway numb to the horror of it. Quizzing him about his worries and sleeping habits felt a little too clinical to Veronica―it was more the kind of intimate conversation a psychiatrist and their patient would have―which wasn't really the atmosphere she and Archie were going for.

"Huh," she said. She stepped back from Archie and walked around the side of the bed furthest from him. Honestly, it felt challenging and unnatural to leave him sitting there, looking like an Abercrombie model at a photoshoot, but he'd just almost-seen her naked (thank god for backlighting) and Veronica wanted to space out the evening's overtly 'fuck me' moments. Archie turned to watch her and she whipped the bed covers back with a flourish.

"What are you doing, Ronnie?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

Archie loosely threw himself backwards on the bed, making Veronica smile.

"Um, going to bed, I guess? Since you _are_ in your pajamas."

Veronica had climbed onto the mattress and paused on her knees.

"You're willing to call _this_ 'pajamas' but scoff at what I had on before?"

"It's more comfortable."

"It's shorter."

"So now you can kick your legs while you sleep. Like a dog does."

He rolled onto his stomach, watching her with his bottom lip held in his teeth.

"Watch it or I'll make you sleep on the floor, Archiekins. Then we'll see who feels like a dog."

Veronica smiled into her lap as she sat and pulled the covers over her legs.

"Nah." Archie pushed himself up. "You'd miss me."

Veronica rested her head against the wall and smiled.

"Have I ever said that I missed you?"

Archie grinned and started to crawl towards her.

"No, but you want to."

Veronica's heart pounded as Archie got close. Smaller. The bed was definitely smaller with him on it. She drew her legs up towards her under the sheet and held her knees.

"Then why haven't I?"

Archie shook his head. He stopped beside her.

"No idea. I used up my best words with the music metaphor thing before."

Veronica laughed.

"So now what?"

"I give you an opportunity by re-establishing our intimacy."

Archie glanced down and slowly moved one arm to plant his fist on the mattress on the other side of Veronica's hips. He looked up and Veronica struggled to absorb as much of his face as the dim light in the room allowed. His eyes looked dark and animal.

She put her palm on his smooth chest and was surprised at how warm he'd stayed without a shirt. Veronica shuffled forward, collapsing her legs flat under the blankets, then twisted so that her covered shoulder touched Archie's bare one. She pressed her mouth to the muscle prominent between his shoulder and neck and felt Archie's exhale in her hair. She turned her head to let it rest there, leaving little space between her face and Archie's.

His hand stroked lightly up her waist and she wondered if he would have preferred the texture of satin. Then again, guys were known for loving their girlfriends in their shirts above anything else―at least, that's what film and television had taught Veronica…

His hand skipped up her back and into her hair. Holding her gently by the back of her neck, Archie eased Veronica's head forward, misjudging the distance so that her lips brushed against his.

Before he could seal the connection, Veronica moved her lips lightly against his.

"I missed you."

Then she held still and let Archie come to her. His mouth was warm and soft like the cotton on her back.


	6. Phosphorescent

VI

Veronica was pure magic. Archie couldn't explain how else he was managing to stay on hands and knees without just diving down on top of her and getting his hand up her skirt. Hem? Hard to say since all she was wearing was his t-shirt. Either way, something about the touch of her hand on his chest was keeping him from going full-horizontal. Supernatural compulsion felt possible. Everything felt possible.

His nudged his mouth against hers a little harder and she parted her lips, slicking her tongue across his before Archie himself knew what he'd been after. He was necessarily always above her when they kissed (because of the height difference) but being above her in bed was a whole other thing. Just thinking that they were technically _in bed_ together got him hard. Not that things would go that far, but she'd definitely invited him to spend the night. Plus he'd seen her naked, or would have, if he had night vision or those sweet binoculars from _Jurassic Park_.

Now it sort of felt like she was wearing the wrong amount. Naked was a lot to deal with right away (and awoke instincts that made Archie feel like a primitive asshole after all the effort they were trying to put into being with each other without _being with_ each other), but half-naked, as Veronica currently was, might have been even worse. He couldn't touch any more skin than he already was without divesting her completely. There was no in between. If he started trying to get her out of his shirt, he'd be committed.

Instead, Archie dug his fingers deeper into Veronica's hair, which made the air he was only sometimes remembering to breathe smell intoxicatingly like lilacs. The hand she had on Archie's chest starting rubbing against him. His dick jerked when her nail scraped his nipple. He wanted to bury his nose in her hair and ask her to marry him. Not really. Maybe a little bit. Her hair was so black he forgot he knew anyone else with black hair. It was so black that he started wondering, if they had kids, whose hair gene would get passed on?

Veronica's other hand tickled the back of his neck when she started playing with the ends of his hair. He didn't think it was fair that that spot gave him such a jolt of pleasure; erogenous zones should be secret, not broadcast with a beacon of phosphorescent red hair.

Archie couldn't hang out in sexual limbo any longer, with Veronica's mouth working against his, and her hands on his skin making him feel flushed and… _swollen_. He sat back―further aroused when Veronica followed him with her lips. For a moment, he just wanted to keep bringing her forward, right out from under the covers and onto his lap, where he could rub himself against her until they both screamed.

Setting that idea aside as a little extreme, Archie tore at the sheets covering her instead. Veronica got the idea and kicked so eagerly to be rid of them that Archie had to get out of her way to prevent injury.

Archie panted and looked down at Veronica's long legs.

"So… this is ok?"

"God. Please. Yes. Go, Archie. I was starting to think you weren't interested after all."

Archie sat back and tilted his head, staring Veronica down until she smirked.

"That comes across a little manipulative, Ronnie."

Her expression hardened.

"Maybe I would mean it like that if I thought there was no other way to get you to touch me."

Archie narrowed his eyes.

"To _get_ me to?"

She shrugged.

"Well, you haven't so far."

Archie gestured at her expansively with both hands.

"Yes I have! You're probably barely holding your head up on your own right now, you've gotten so used to my hand being there to support it!"

Veronica moved as if to plant her hands on her hips, but realized she was sitting down. She thumped the mattress with her fists instead.

"My head? Worry about your own! I don't know how you were keeping your ego in check before, Archie Andrews, but…"

Shaking with frustration and lust, Archie laid his palm high on Veronica's inner thigh, wedging it in to force her legs apart. Veronica jumped as though she had the hiccups. Archie looked her sternly in the eye as the colour rose in Veronica's cheeks.

"I'm interested."

He pulled his hand back and grabbed Veronica's hips with both hands, tugging her down flat on her back. Then, Archie pressed on hand up between her legs. Veronica's hand shot out to encircle his wrist, but, from the look on her face, she wasn't stopping him. Archie slipped two fingers into her wetness, stroking perpendicular to her entrance. When his fingers pressed her clit, Veronica shook. It was seismic.

Archie let his thumb babysit her clit while his other fingers crept away to feel out her opening. The scent of her arousal was the only thing competing with the whiff of lilac from her hair, and Archie wanted to launch in, applying his tongue to every sensitive swell and tuck. He might have, if not for the fact that he'd never done that to a woman before and didn't really want Veronica to write him off as an amateur the very first time they were together. Intimately.

Archie grinned to himself as Veronica ran her fingers lightly up and down his forearm, then contradicted this gentle, patient handling by rocking her hips roughly against his hand. He wasn't teasing her out of some sadistic desire to withhold her satisfaction, it was just that he'd never had the opportunity to actually go at the pace he chose. He and Val had definitely never gotten this far, but the few times Archie had gotten his hands on her boobs, his motions had always been rushed and jerky, in case his dad busted in.

Miss Grundy was a whole other story. Being with her had taught Archie to do things fast. He was never sure whether it was her preference or just the ever-present fear of being caught having an affair with a minor, who was also her student. Regardless, she had always been on him hot and heavy from the get-go, with the foreplay limited at best. It could also have been a control thing, since Archie could see how his actions might be making Veronica feel pretty vulnerable.

He took a deep breath, unbuttoning his jeans with one hand and pushing inside her with two fingers of the other. Veronica moaned and Archie pressed down hard on her clit to draw out the sound. She started to pant, her chest rising and falling visibly under his t-shirt and her legs dropping open a little wider. Her hand left his wrist (she had starting gripping him there and Archie thought he might have a bruise) and settled above his. Veronica took hold of his thumb and used it to drag her clit around in a circle, like she was a toddler writing with a thick crayon.

Archie watched her do it, practically feeling the flood of blood slosh towards his crotch as his dick stiffened uncomfortably in his jeans. He kept at the motion she'd shown him, switching to rub in the opposite direction. Veronica let go of him with a sigh… only to clamp down on his leg just above the knee. He wasn't sure if it was meant to be forward, but anything going on within the vicinity of his hard-on was on Archie's radar.

He curled his fingers deep inside her channel, pressing the blunt ends of his fingertips into her front wall. Veronica closed her eyes and cried out. Archie continued curling and uncurling his fingers to keep Veronica's attention on what was going on between her legs, rather than what was going on between his. With his free hand, Archie eased the zipper of his jeans down, exhaling in a huff through his nose as the pressure on his length disappeared. He slipped his palm into his boxers, taking himself in hand and stroking softly to the rhythm he'd established with Veronica.

Archie was just admiring the shape of her and thinking he'd like to get his hands up under that t-shirt when Veronica opened her eyes, squeezed his leg, and climaxed, her gaze falling on Archie's abdomen, where his hand disappeared down the front of his shorts.


	7. Snowflake

VII

Veronica couldn't tell whether her eyes were open or shut. She felt like someone had just pressed the reset button in her brain and all her senses were struggling to come back online. Somehow, she'd managed to lose her eyes' adjustment to the darkness of her room. Shapes were coming back to her slowly, but they seemed soft like smudged charcoal.

She brushed her hand along the sheet and Archie's came out to hold it. Veronica blinked hard a few times, watching Archie's face above her clarify.

"Get down here, Archiekins."

She pulled gently at his hand and Archie dropped down next to her, curving into her with a hand around her waist. Veronica groaned, forcing herself over onto her side so that her knees met Archie's. Falling asleep would be so easy.

Archie's face rubbed against her pillow and Veronica scooted her head closer to his. He breathed deeply and lifted his head only slightly to kiss her, so that Veronica felt his face against hers almost straight on, his nose along the side of hers, their lips nearly aligned.

When he started kissing her slowly and deeply, weaving his fingers back into her hair, Veronica began to tingle again. It was impossible not to put her hands on Archie, so she didn't try to stop herself. She traced over his abdominal muscles with the ends of her fingers and Archie jerked like she'd defibrillated him. She'd seen with her own eyes that his jeans were open, though he didn't seem as keen to force her hand down there as he had been with his own.

Veronica pushed her mouth against Archie's more roughly, then slipped her tongue inside when he started kissing her with a little less discipline in response. Seeing Archie touch himself made Veronica eager for a sleepover at Betty's at the first opportunity; maybe her orgasm had put Veronica a smidge out of her mind, because that scenario seemed like an ideal sexual stakeout―once Betty was asleep, of course―whereby Veronica could spy across into Archie's room for another glimpse of his self-love.

Watching someone she still viewed as so innocent (in comparison to herself? To the rest of the town? Because of the 'trust me, Veronica' eyes that he was once again giving her?) satisfy themselves to the sound and feel of _her_ pleasure threw her sense of right and wrong all out of whack. Nevertheless, she could tell that particular indulgence had the potential for longevity. If she treated it the right way tonight, Archie would want to repeat it. The way his eyes had sparked when she touched herself vicariously through him was also something to note.

Veronica drew her mouth away from his, running her lips, then her tongue down the side of Archie's neck. He let out a sigh that sounded like stolen contentment and Veronica smiled against his skin. She took his hand from her waist, pressing the back of her hand into his palm and linking their fingers. Then, she pulled their hands down between them, hiking her thigh up over Archie's hip and letting him feel (because of the way their hands rested in the same direction) her stroking her own fingers through her wetness to re-slick her clit.

Archie groaned and tried to untangle his fingers from hers, but she tightened her grip.

"Ronnie, you're killing me."

"Is it the pace? Because I was getting the impression you liked it slow."

She bit the bottom of his ear and adjusted their hands so that Archie's finger was the one resting on her clit. Instantly, he started jiggling his fingers against it and Veronica hummed. She shifted around to free the arm she was laying on and reached right for the band of his boxers, pulling it towards her, and then down so that his erection sprang out. Archie seemed like he might back off in embarrassment, so Veronica ground herself against his hand, getting him back into it, while she made a loose, incomplete loop with her fingers around his dick.

"Ronnie!" he panted out next to her ear.

She smiled to herself, flattered. She hadn't even begun.

Veronica brought her hand up to her mouth and slowly sucked two fingers inside, letting them drag her bottom lip on the way out. Archie moaned and Veronica could almost hear his heart falling out of his chest and rolling away off the side of her mattress. She moved her hand down to the head of his dick to gather some of his wetness―collecting her saliva on her fingers had been purely for show―then slipped her hand down his length, fingertips first followed by the flat of her palm.

As she warmed him up, Veronica was amazed by how trusting Archie was being. His moans were frequent and she appreciated that―one, they made the muscles between her legs clench up hungrily each time; two, they told her Archie was confident enough to guide her; and three, they showed he had confidence in her that she _could_ be guided without him having to lay a finger on her (at least, not on her hand, his fingers were still on her in other places). She firmed up her grip and hurried her pace, doing it suddenly to provoke further reactions.

"Veronica," Archie groaned. She felt his jaw tense under her cheek and decided to give him back the reins. A little.

She disengaged his fingers from where they were rubbing her senseless and placed their joined, slicked fingers around Archie's cock. He pulled his head back and looked at her, surprise flitting up through the lust in his eyes. Veronica raised an eyebrow.

"What? You think I didn't notice what you were doing before?"

Archie did nothing but swallow so Veronica gave his erection a gentle, pulsing squeeze.

"Show me."

Archie tilted his head back and laughed softly in disbelief in a 'man, won't this be one to tell the boys about' manner. Veronica smiled because she knew he never would. She knew their trust would last.

He lowered his chin and looked her squarely in the eye. Veronica stared right back so Archie gave in, tightening his hand around hers, making hers tighten around his dick. She got her other hand out of the way and, missing the touch of him between her thighs, took up his efforts to bring her to ecstasy again. Archie was looking down between their bodies and how much he could actually see Veronica didn't know, but he obviously noticed her fingering herself because he groaned deeply. Veronica almost laughed.

Suddenly, Archie's thigh came up under hers, intertwining their legs and pushing hard into her hand. Veronica moaned and Archie reacted quickly. He pulled the hand away that had been working with hers over his length and replaced it with the hand from the side of his body he was laying on. His free hand tugged hers away from her core, then grabbed her firmly by the ass, pressing her wetness against his thigh.

Veronica frowned, annoyed to have the latest source of her pleasure taken from her (her own hand at that!). She was confused until Archie dragged her forward and she felt the balance of her slippery arousal fight the friction of his leg wedged against her. Veronica cried out and Archie dove at her mouth with his, kissing her passionately though she could feel the smile at the corners of his lips. He guided her back and forth a few times, slowly, while they also repositioned their hands around his shaft. When both rhythms gained confidence, Veronica took over with her hips, demoting Archie's hand on her ass to a supporting role as she swiped herself boldly across his skin.

Veronica was wet enough to get near her peak again quickly, so she smoothed her hand over Archie's abs, giving him control to get himself off as he liked. He pulled her in tighter so that she could feel, against her abdomen, the back of his hand or his knuckles as he stroked and twisted over his cock. She sped up, throwing herself forward and back, the sensation augmented by the stiffening of the muscles in Archie's thigh as he rubbed himself closer to release.

When Veronica had to pull out of their kiss because she needed her mouth free to moan, Archie's lips followed her, brushing against her ear. She thought, distantly, that he just wanted to be close to her, but then his voice came. It was lower than she'd ever heard it, and it rasped with the sound of his soul-deep pleasure.

"God, Ronnie, I want you to rub yourself all over me like this."

Veronica flicked her hips against him in response and the noise he made was animal.

"Uhh, yes. I wanna feel you inside and out. I want you to let me get you there."

Veronica was surprised to hear the sound of her own voice.

"Baby, you are, you _are_ getting me there."

"No, I wanna be―I want…"

Archie was losing himself so Veronica pushed him onto his back with both of her hands. Losing his thigh from between her legs felt like freefalling into the Grand Canyon, but she quickly scrambled onto his lap. Archie got his hands out of her way and smoothed them up her thighs, groaning. Veronica aligned their hips, letting his dick slide swiftly through her wetness. They were both too far gone to make Veronica want to take him all the way in―she was enjoying this, him, too much to let their first time be a matter of seconds only. Luckily, because of their preparation, she could be on him fast from the start.

Veronica's hips jerked sloppily back and forth, Archie guiding her first by his hold on her legs, then by moving his hands around to her lower back. In those moments, Veronica was thoroughly thankful for his reach and his larger frame, feeling secure enough in his sturdy hold to let go, properly and primally.

She looked down into Archie's face. His vibrant hair was streaking sideways across his forehead and his mouth hung open, but his eyes were sharp and determined. Veronica stared at him, wanting everything. Wanting to suck him up through a milkshake straw. Wanting to build a home, a whole life, deep in the red forest of his hair like the goddamn Christmas Whos on their fucking snowflake. Wanting to hear Gershwin pour out of the rich, woody throat of a clarinet, propelled by the mouth of someone who played it because they loved it and not just because their father told them to. Wanting to feel exactly this, forever.

Veronica came, soaking him, and Archie followed right after. She flopped down onto his chest, stretching her twitching legs out behind her. Archie's lips pressed soundly against the side of her face, kissing her over and over. By the time his delayed arms wrapped up and around her, Veronica was already drifting off to sleep.


	8. Every Minute

VIII

Veronica went limp faster than Archie's dick and he laid still in the dark, feeling her weight―her physical weight, but also the importance, the responsibility of having her and holding her here like this. He eased her off of his chest and she dropped smoothly to his side without objection. Archie stared into her calm, sleeping face and felt his ears ringing, until he remembered everything was quiet and decided that it must be his brain ringing instead.

He swept the hair from in front of her closed eyes. Somehow it wasn't right for Veronica to look dishevelled, even after what they'd been doing. Archie ran a hand over his face, pressing against his eyelids. He didn't know what his own hair looked like, but it was probably energetic and wild, unlike the rest of his exhausted form. He figured it must be the result of having Veronica spread out on top of him, deadweight, for a while, because he'd never felt so spent after sex before.

And, technically, they hadn't even _had_ sex.

 _Fuck that_ , Archie thought. If being with her the way he had wasn't sex, he wasn't sure if he really knew what was, or if it could possibly be worth it since there was no way it would be better than what had happened between them. He rolled onto his side, unable to stop looking at Veronica, before his leaden body had the chance to sink down into the mattress and become one with it.

Archie wasn't sure how the women in his life managed to look so perfect, but Veronica had an unreal quality even when she slept. It was a little different though, now. Her beauty, her fearlessness, her impulsiveness had always been like ice. Now that ice was melting, and she was still made up of the same things, but they were softer and more transparent. If he stared at her long enough, he knew words would start coming to him, simple verbs, abstract metaphors that he would stitch into a song. Betty would find it endearing. Jughead would probably laugh his ass off, then switch to his serious face as he considered the possibility that what was between Archie and Veronica really might be serious.

Archie didn't know how Veronica would react. He smiled. The thought didn't upset him. He was ready for her to be unpredictable. He tried to think only of her possible responses and not of the words he'd like to use to sing about her. If lyrics started gelling in his mind, he'd feel compelled to get up and write them down, and Archie really didn't want to move.

Veronica breathed deeply beside him and Archie closed his eyes, making everything a shade closer to black. Her pillow smelt like lilac. The darkness of the world with his eyes closed could be her hair. He slept.

There was a girl, a girl with black hair, sitting at a piano. Archie went towards her, apparently deaf since he could see her hands moving on the keys but hear nothing at all. He got near to her, but it took a long time. He hadn't realized she was so far off. And he wasn't deaf after all because the music was reaching his ears now, _poco a poco_. It was tinny. It was tinny because it was coming from a wind-up music box in the shape of a girl sitting at a piano. Archie picked it up. The metal was slick and he brought one hand to his face. It smelt like lilac. He turned the music box over in his hand and found he was suspended in the sky. It was an endless grey. He held the box the right way up and felt snapped, crinkling wheat under his feet. He was in a field. He looked up and the sky had turned royal blue and rippling. Veronica squeezed his hand and he looked into her eyes, but couldn't understand. Archie looked up again as the lightning struck.

When Archie woke up he wondered why. It was still dark. He went to stretch, but his arm was stuck. His arm was stuck under Veronica. Archie froze, seeing her still asleep, but now with her dark head heavy on his chest. His heart was racing and he realized he was still lying flat on his back. He'd gotten used to sleeping like this at home; if he tossed and turned too much, Jughead would start throwing dirty laundry at him.

Veronica's cheek rubbed against his bare skin and she lifted her head slowly.

"Archie?"

His heart didn't slow so Archie took her face between his hands and kissed her. Veronica was warm and eager. Fumblingly, he started pulling his t-shirt up her stomach. She reached for his hips, dragging the layers down until Archie could use his feet to shove them off into the bottom of her bed. She lifted her arms, wriggling out of the shirt. She tossed it away as Archie climbed on top of her, pushing inside.

Veronica's channel was hot and her muscles relaxed. She let her legs fall apart, halfway between bent and straight as Archie stroked slowly in and out of her, reaching deep. Her mouth was wide, gasping, when Archie tapped her g-spot over and over. She became smooth, then slick, then wet and Archie wrapped around her, taking her torso up into his arms. She was already shaking.

Veronica's fingers ran through his hair and she mumbled "Archie, oh, Archie" into his ear, like a rhythm he could put words to. Archie held her and rocked, worshipping the space between her legs as the epicenter of all that they were in those moments. Her thighs swayed, bumping his hips. Her back arched up, sticking and unsticking their lightly sweating chests. Archie could feel her all over him, an immersive work of art.

She shuddered in his arms, vibrating like an earthquake's aftershock. Tingling like the blade of grass that draws the lightning from the sky. "Vronca," he panted against her neck, losing himself inside her. Then they laid there on their backs looking up, as if they could see the stars through the ceiling.

"If you have to leave in the morning before I wake up, you can."

Archie rolled over. Veronica had the sheet pulled up on her chest. He liked the shape of her shoulders. Archie left his portion of the sheet hanging loose and low around his hips.

"Are you sure?"

"I left you last time." She put her palm on his chest.

"So you're offering me the opportunity to get even?" Archie smiled, too tired to be more outwardly playful.

"No, I'm offering you the opportunity to be missed. Every minute until I see you again."

He took her hand and gently traced the unreadable lines of her palm with his fingertips.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed my first Archie and Veronica fic. If you've come here familiar with my Jughead and Betty stories, never fear, there will be more! If you're here as a diehard Archie-Veronica shipper, I hope I did this couple justice for you.

On a personal note, this story puts me over 100,000 words published to this site since I started writing on January 1, 2017. I am deeply and eternally grateful for your encouragement and support.

XO ForASecondThereWe'dWon


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